As one would expect from a Trump Regime media outlet, the Media Research Center aggressively defended Texas’ Trump-mandated redistricting to add more Republican seats in Congress. Jorge Bonilla was the first regime defender in a July 25 post:
With the Texas Legislature in a special midterm redistricting session that is likely to end with a gain of around 5 House seats for Republicans, you can expect the legacy media to sound all manner of alarms signifying that what is routine under Democrats is an existential threat to Democracy when Republicans do it. CBS Evening News Plus has taken an early crack at redistricting.
[…]In sum: the mean Republicans are trying to deprive Democrats of their birthright- control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Of course, this is all hypocritical.
I do not recall similar media caterwauling over the Democrats redistricting the once-useful Adam Kinzinger out of a House seat in Illinois, making an already-crazy map totally insane. Nor do I recall any media outcry over the Democratic-run New York state legislature intervening in their redistricting process when the independent commission did not resolve redistricting to their satisfaction.
As with all things these days, what is normally a non-story for the media becomes one when a pro-Trump angle emerges. Redistricting is normally not a bid deal, but it’s (D)ifferent this time.
Bonilla didn’t mention that the Illinois redistricting took place at the usual decennial post-census cycle, which resulted in the state losing one congressional seat; New York redistricted in 2024 after a court ruled its 2022 map invalid. Neither did what Texas is doing in redistricting at the behest of a Republican president to manufacture more Republican seats, meaning that Texas is the (d)ifferent one. Firther, we don’t recall anyone at the MRC caterwauling over Kinzinger — a Republican — getting redistricted (he left Congress rather than run in a different district) because he was a critic of Trump and his corruption, which the MRC absolutely hated.
Curtis Houck huffed in a July 31 post:
In the latest installment of what is shaping up to be an ongoing series, the CBS Evening News Plus ran an item on Texas redistricting. And we continue to struggle to remember when such items ran relative to gerrymandered redistricting in Democrat states.
[…]Tonight’s item follows the release of a proposed map that would strip several Democrat districts, leaving them with 8 seats. Senior White House Correspondent Ed O’Keefe worked this report, doing some math on these seats, explaining why the redistricting might be successful for the GOP (or not).
O’Keefe then profiles a Democrat Congresswoman, Julie Johnson. Rep. Johnson came out in support of California and other blue states redistricting so as to mitigate what Texas is doing.
As was the case with the original report, there were no conservative viewpoints to be offered. There was nobody to come on and explain that California, New York, and other states did their own radical redistricting way before what we’re seeing in Texas. . Some might say that things are (D)ifferent.
Like Bonilla, Houck failed to disclose that Texas really is the (d)ifferent one by pushing a mid-decade redistricting demanded by a president.
Bonilla returned to complain in an Aug. 3 post:
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, in an interview with former Attorney General Eric Holder, sounded almost despondent while asking whether Democrats could do anything to stop the redistricting process currently underway in Texas. His question on the matter sounded like a plea.
Watch as Holder discusses redistricting free of irony, with no pushback from Stephanopoulos:
[…]There was zero pushback from Stephanopoulos on Holder’s proposal that Democrats’ retaliatory redistricting be “temporary”, which is a laughable prospect. And let’s face it, no conversation on redistricting can be taken seriously that doesn’t also mention Illinois, California, Washington or Oregon (among others). This one didn’t either, except for Holder’s praise of California’s redistricting commission which already redrew Republicans out of any meaningful House representation.
Bonilla didn’t explain why he has no objection to Texas drawing Democrats out of any meaningful House representation aside from revenge purposes, and he again refused to admit that, unlike the other states he cited, Texas is doing a mid-decade redistricting under presidential order.
Houck again played the whataboutism card in an whiny Aug. 4 post:
On Monday, ABC, CBS, and NBC used their flagship morning news shows to gush over the “Texas-sized fight” and “standoff” state Democrats pitched by cowardly flocking to Illinois in opposition to a Republican-led redrawing of the Lone Star State’s 38 House seats. Framing it as standing up for “democracy,” CBS and NBC ignored the left’s penchant for gerrymandering and all three saw no problem with the legislators abandoning their constituents.
Houck again failed to explain why, if gerrymandering is bad, he has no problem with Texas Republicans doing it.
Tim Graham similarly played whataboutism in his Aug. 4 podcast:
The Democrat newspapers and networks are decrying “controversial” mid-decade redistricting by Republicans in Texas. It’s partisan…but it’s also partisan when Democrats do it in blue states. The partisan press doesn’t consider that “news.”
Redistricting is an issue for political junkies. Your average American doesn’t obsess over district maps, even when they help determine who’s in the majority. They passed a redistricting plan out of committee in Texas on Saturday, and now some Texas Democrats have flown to Illinois to deny a legislative quorum.
Parker Thayer of the Capital Research Center tickled me by tweeting: “Going to Illinois to protest gerrymandering is like going to Wisconsin to protest cheese.” Redistricting in blue states is never national “news,” because maximizing Democrat seats is considered wonderfully just and humane.
Like the others, Graham refused to admit that Texas was doing something very (d)ifferent that the states he was attacking.